Nuclear weapons

Within a 4 percent overall budget increase for the National Nuclear Security Administration, funding for most weapons and nonproliferation R&D programs will remain steady in fiscal year 2019. Congress rejected steep proposed cuts to inertial confinement fusion programs and greenlit development of a controversial new low-yield nuclear warhead.

The latest version of the National Defense Authorization Act contains numerous provisions that aim to enhance innovation in defense technologies and combat foreign efforts to exploit U.S. R&D. It postpones a proposal to reform the relationship between the National Nuclear Security Administration and the Department of Energy.

The new management team for Los Alamos National Laboratory represents a mix of continuity and change for the storied national security lab, which has been plagued by a series of safety mishaps in recent years.

The final spending legislation for fiscal year 2018 raises the National Nuclear Security Administration’s budget by 13 percent to $14.7 billion, with most major R&D programs benefiting from the increase.

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s budget would rise by about $2 billion under the Trump administration’s proposal for fiscal year 2019. Most weapons-related R&D programs would benefit from the funding influx, with the notable exception of Inertial Confinement Fusion, which the administration seeks to cut by 20 percent.

The new head of the National Nuclear Security Administration, Lisa Gordon-Hagerty, has deep experience in nuclear security affairs. At her confirmation hearing, she testified that her top priorities for NNSA are modernizing the agency’s infrastructure and reinforcing its high-skill workforce.

The Trump administration’s policy toward nuclear weapons development and use, articulated in its Nuclear Posture Review, declares the U.S. needs new “tailored” and “flexible” deterrent capabilities and a more “responsive” production infrastructure and technical workforce.

Congress has passed the National Defense Authorization Act, an annual bill that sets policy for the Department of Defense and the National Nuclear Security Administration. The final version incorporated or adapted many of the R&D-related proposals from the original House and Senate versions of the bill.

The House and Senate appropriations bills for the National Nuclear Security Administration would provide much of the Trump administration’s requested 10 percent increase to weapons-related research, development, test, and evaluation activities.

President Trump’s fiscal year 2018 budget requests a 10 percent increase for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation program. Much of the new funding would go toward accelerating development of an exascale computing platform, enhancing the subcritical nuclear testing program, and launching the Stockpile Responsiveness Program.

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